Northern Ireland - Source A tells us about employment in 1961. At the Belfast shipyard, which we are told is the &quot;biggest single source of employment in the city&quot; Only 400 out of 10,000 employees, are catholic

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Introduction

Northern Ireland Coursework: Carly Feeley 11A 1375 1. Source A tells us about employment in 1961. At the Belfast shipyard, which we are told is the "biggest single source of employment in the city" Only 400 out of 10,000 employees, are catholic. Even all the top jobs were filled mostly with Protestants in a county with a higher majority of Catholics. This issue is complicated because it would be a hard issue to prove. Employers could easily say that the Catholics turned down were not qualified for the job. The most sought after jobs being bus drivers, you would expect quite a few to be Catholics, because all of the top jobs are filled by Protestants. Considering that over half of the population of Fermanagh was catholic and all the jobs were taken by Protestants, you would think Catholics would fill up the bus driver's place, but out of about 75 school bus drivers, all but seven were protestant. So we can see from source A, that although half the population were catholic, the majority of them were being deprived of getting the good positions in the work place. 2. Source B and C are useful in helping to asses the extent of discrimination against Catholics. Source B is Billy Sinclair talking in 1984, and he was a former player manager of Linfield football club in Northern Ireland. ...read more.

Middle

Lots of people were killed and injured at these marches and I think it just made matters worse. In Derry, on Sunday 30th January 1972, the marches were looking for trouble and intended to go to the guildhall, through the Catholic Bog side area. The sources carry on describing what the eyewitness's interpretation of the incident was. One reporter quoted "I do not think, from what I saw, that the IRA opened up first, even if they did, I do not think, it would have justified the return of fire into crowds of people into that packed square" So the reporter is saying whether nor not the IRA fired, he doesn't think this would have made any impact on the protestants...they still would have fired. Taking into account that this was only his opinion, I cannot make a good judgement about who instigated 'Bloody Sunday' 4. Source H, Michael Farrell, a member of the Northern Ireland Civil Rights association. He was speaking on the same television programme as the reverend Ian Paisley. Michael Farrell is saying that the IRA never dominated the scene. This is a contradiction of source G as the reverend Ian Paisley, after being asked who was behind civil rights in his view, replied that the IRA were behind it, or the people that supported the IRA. ...read more.

Conclusion

Another year marked on the wall was 1960. This was referring to the battle of the Boyne. In 1690, the new king, William of Orange, followed James to Ireland with his own army and defeated him, on July 1st - Battle of the Boyne. This victory marked a turning point along the road to Northern Ireland's conflicts. After this incident, it seemed, Protestants made sure they had complete control of Ireland, and prevented any further attempts by Catholics to regain power. So the wall is basically, highlighting the major events in Irish History Another one of the many reasons that the problems in Northern Ireland never seized, is sectarian discrimination. Catholics were given the worst jobs and worst housing environments and so obviously the Protestants were gaining most out of the conflict and were not looking for a resolution. Even peaceful marches by the Catholics caused violence because of all the media attention, sectarian prejudice and fear of the IRA. Many working class loyalists were angry at the demands of civil righters, because they resented the impression given in the Media - that only Catholics suffered hardships, while a privileged protestant community looked down on them. In conclusion I agree with source J, that the conflict between many, for example catholics and Protestants, and paramilitary's and unionists, is not achieving any resolution because people keep looking back to the past. ...read more.

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